Is It Bad to Covet Specific Celebrity Features?

Yesterday the New York Post ran a “trend” story about women who seek to alter their appearance to look more like celebrities, by zeroing in on one particular feature. They quote Jennifer Zealof, a hotel receptionist who recently had a nose job to look more like Natalie Portman. She told the reporter, “my friends want to look like Kim Kardashian, but I think Natalie Portman is more natural and elegant.” Another woman in the story, who already happens to look like her fiancé’s celeb crush, Jennifer Garner, got her dermatologist to inject filler into her face for a more Garner-esque jawline. Back in the day people used to tear out pictures of actresses and bring them to the hair salon in hopes to get bangs like Alexa Chung or beachy waves like Blake Lively, but now, thanks to plastic surgery science, you can get faces and other body parts like the Hollywood crew.

It’s easy to read this story and immediately feel the urge to judge these people for their body image troubles. Of course we could all be happy with what God gave us, and it’s terrible practice to itemize and compartmentalize women in such a way, but just like the women in the Post article, the truth is, we’ve all had thoughts like this before at some point (even if we wouldn’t actually go through any procedures). We don’t necessarily hate the way we look, but if someone said, “If you push this button you’ll magically get Gisele legs!”, we’d certainly pause and think about it (then press immediately). We all have one part of our body we wish were more celebrity “perfect”.

So I asked the Cut team, if a magic machine existed and we all had the option to A-list-ify one of our physical attributes, who would you mind swapping body parts with?

Adriana Lima’s Legs: “They are long, slim but toned; not boney, and they’re also freakishly slick. Like she appears to have never grown leg hair in her life. I think she’s part seal, and I’m okay with that.” —Amelia Diamond